Mama Jax Attacks

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

It's 5 am right now and I'm in no mood for introductions, so
let's cut right to the chase. This post is the second in my family food prep
series. In my last
post, I talked about how I streamline my cooking in one or two
sessions so that my family eats homemade meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Today I'll share the vegetable-based recipes my family likes that are easy to
streamline and are healthy! Be forewarned: there is a lot of chopping!

The secret to food prep is good tools. Just like you need a
good education and training to be successful in your career, you need good
kitchen tools to make your food. Consider getting the tools I use on here, and
please feel free to comment with tools you think I should look into!

Remember, I make everything to serve troops. So my
quantities are for large portions, and you may need more or less.

Let's start with soups. Soups are one of the easiest ways to
incorporate lots of vegetables into your diet and enjoy a comforting, savory
food. I also like them because semi-toothless babies can eat soups. We are
having an issue getting our 3-year-old to try soup at this time. Oddly enough,
he ate these recipes without complaining until 6 months ago, but now demands
roasted vegetables. So as of now he's the only one not eating any of this.

"Creamy" Broccoli Spinach Soup

Makes ~10 servings (I usually make this in double batches,
in two pots, it freezes extremely well)

Ingredients

3 leeks, washed and sliced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

18 cups of barely chopped broccoli (you can buy bags of
broccoli at Costco, 3/4 of the bag should cover this), and truth be told, I
don't measure, I just fill up the pot

18 cups spinach (again, large bag at Costco, or just one
entire bag of Fresh Express Spinach)

2 cups chicken broth

1/3 cup Tahini (ground sesame seeds)

Salt, to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot under medium heat, then add the
garlic. Cook it for about 1 minute, then add the leeks. Stir to combine with
the garlic and turn up the heat to medium-high. Continue to let the leeks cook,
stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Let them brown slightly. Add the
broccoli and the chicken broth, and immediately cover the pot. Once the
broccoli begins to brighten in color, stir it to mix it thoroughly with the
broth and leeks. Continue to cook it until it's just bright - don't cook it too
long or else it will get soggy and brown. Turn down the heat to medium-low, add
the spinach, cover, and let the spinach wilt. Once it's soft enough, turn off
the heat and stir it in with the other vegetables until it's completely soft.
Grab your hand blender - you need this - and begin pureeing the soup. Once it's
basically pureed, add the tahini and salt, and puree it again to get it really
soft and "creamy". If you would like, add a bit of parmesan cheese
for more flavor in lieu of salt. Heath, our 16-month-old, DEVOURS this soup. He
actually drinks it because the spoon takes him too long. If you're looking for
a way to get loads of green into your kids diets, this soup is great.

12-14 celery stalks, or about one head of celery, not
including the gross middle stalks, coarsely chopped

2 large yellow onions, coarsely chopped

2-28oz cans of whole tomatoes, drained

1 Tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/3 cup tahini (ground Sesame seeds)

chopped fresh basil, for garnish and flavor

Put everything but the tahini in the crock pot on high for 5
hours. When the vegetables are soft, use your hand blender to puree the soup,
then add the tahini and puree it more until it's thick and creamy. Garnish with
freshly chopped basil.

Amazeballs Ratatouille

I don't know where I got this recipe; at some point I added
it to my recipe lists on AnyList, and then found it accidentally. This is for
TWO batches. Cut it in half if you only want to make one to start.

Makes 2 batches, each which make about 12 generous servings.
I make this two times without washing the crock pot between, and freeze the
second batch. Then I only have to make it twice a month.

Pre-heat the broiler to high. Put the vegetables in a large
bowl, drizzle the olive oil, salt, and Italian seasoning over them. Stir to
combine, You can either thread the vegetables on skewers and broil
them on high for about 5 minutes each side, or you can just lay them on a
baking pan lined with foil, broil them on high for 5-7 minutes, then toss them
around a bit and repeat the broiling time.

I don't have any pictures of my food, so I'll leave you with
a picture of my kids playing near the harbor. In Part 3, I'll talk to you about the proteins we make in
our house! Until then... :)

Sunday, June 15, 2014

This post is either going to leave you thanking me, or thinking that I'm insane. Today I'm going to tell you how I manage to cook 99% of everything my family eats. I make everyone's breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. We go out to eat 1-2 times per month and the most processed food in our fridge is Greek yogurt. Nearly everything is made from scratch. I don't have lots of time on my hands - like any other mom I'm busy. I hope to give you an idea of how I do it without confusing or overwhelming you. Truthfully, I never read anything on how to do this and just figured it out as my husband and I started our family. Hopefully I'm able to put down in sensical words just how I get it done.

First, I should say that cooking and meal planning require discipline and commitment. Meaning, it takes little bits of daily decisions which lead up to an efficient day (or two) of meal prep. My streamlined approach may not work for every family. I pretty much cook everything on weekends. I never come home and say "What should I make my family for dinner?". There's always something already made.

Here is what my fridge looks like on a Sunday night, before the work week. Twelve servings of breakfast, 18 salads for lunches, 6 second lunches of soup and some sort of protein, 28 dinners of which include vegetables and a protein, 14 days worth of snacks for my boys. And breast milk, of course :) I don't make breakfast for more than 3 days at a time because it doesn't taste as good and it's easy to make.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I use a free app called AnyList. I highly recommend this app. It allows you to create recipes and directly populate ingredients into shopping lists from the recipes. It also allows for user sharing which means if my husband stops somewhere and sees we need something on a list, he can grab it and cross it off of mine. I add all of my meals - even salads - to my recipe lists, no matter how simple, so that I can easily add items to the grocery list. As we run out of things throughout the week, we both add things to the list. Before I go to the store, I make a list of the things I plan on making for the week and complete my grocery list based on my menu plan. Bam! Meal planning is complete!

Getting to the grocery store is one of the most difficult parts to meal planning. I do most of my food prep during baby sleep times, which leaves me with the challenge of finding time to get groceries while juggling my 3-year-old's extremely busy social life. I'm going to start taking advantage of the service where the store shops for you and you just pick it up. It's only $5, which is worth the time it takes me to squeeze it in between work appointments.

So here are the rest of my "tricks":

I make meals in a mix and match format. Usually four options for a protein and vegetables. For example, egg and kale scramble for breakfast can be mixed with roasted veggies, almond slaw, or some sort of vegetable soup. We don't eat starches for the most part, and snacks are usually fruit, nuts, yogurt and for the kids my zucchini carrot oat muffins.

I make everything in enormous batches. This makes it annoying but overall more efficient. I have a recipe I cook in a crock pot (which I will post in part 2) that I will make in two large batches without even washing the crock pot in between. I will then freeze the second batch and make it just twice a month.

When cooking in huge batches, it's very important to be efficient with time management. To begin making salads for our lunches, I lay down 18-20 containers ahead of time. I pull out all of the ingredients from the fridge at once. I wash and chop each vegetable and put that particular vegetable in a bowl, then add it to the container. I keep a large bowl near me at all times to discard trash, instead of walking to the trash can. Here's what it looks like on my dining room table when I'm making salads.

I pack lunches for everyone at least 3 days in advance. When I make soup, I will set aside portions for everyone. This is so good - we rarely have to pack lunches the night before. This is not only great for convenience but for health and weight management. Whether or not I workout at 6 am or I'm teaching at 6 pm, I have to fuel my body appropriately for the intense workouts in which I participate. I simply cannot eat a heavily carb-loaded food for lunch and expect to have energy needed to get through Body Attack.

I use the crock pot. A lot. So much in fact, I'm probably going to buy myself another one sometime soon. Today I roasted a 7.5 pound pig. I slow cooked it for 20 hours, and it is so delicious and tender, yet I spent more time opening the package than I did actually doing anything special to it. I highly recommend getting a crock pot and learning how to use it.

Going back to time management, don't bother to clean what you don't need to clean while you're in cook-mode. Just get as much prepped as possible. I clean things when I need more space in my small kitchen or if a tool needs to be washed. Like I mentioned, I'll recycle the crock pot.

Set aside time to do this. Two-three hours at least. It doesn't need to be all at once. I make everyone breakfast usually on Sundays and make a large enough batch to get through a few days. While two or three hours seems like a lot, it's significantly more efficient than trying to make everyone's individual dinners and lunches the night before.

I don't make anything overly complicated and I get to know my recipes very well. Yes, I have some complex recipes on this blog, but I don't take the time to make most of those during my weekly food prep. Also, anything I wrote during my pregnancy isn't an accurate reflection of how I eat or cook, because I indulge much more while I'm growing a person :)

So those are some of the basics to time management and cooking as much as I do. Yes, it's a lot of work. For those that know me, now maybe you have some insight as to why I'm so against giving my kids junk food on a regular basis, especially between meals. I make it a huge priority to feed my family healthy, home cooked meals. So I want them eat the food I take the time to make for them.

In Part 2, I'll post what my weekly food plan looks like, including recipes, to help you and your family eat healthier and more conveniently!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

You know it's been awhile since you've written a blog post when you have to google the address to go to get into the blog. I am looking at my last post, initially thinking I wrote it two months ago. January?! Whoops.

People keep asking me to post my recipes and methods for how I manage to do everything I do with regards to having homemade breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks packed for everyone all of the time. I will eventually write a post on it, because I have it down to a science. Until then, I will just give a few pointers. I work a lot, so it's not during the week (although I stayed home for a year and found it to be impossible to get anything accomplished as well). I use serious time management, and a free app called AnyList, which allows me to import my recipes and then populate ingredients directly from the recipe to a shopping list. It also allows for multiple user-sharing, so if my husband stops by the store to grab diapers and sees that we need olive oil, he can just grab it and cross it off our lists. I also divide up my washing of vegetables, chopping, cooking and cleaning so it's as efficient as possible. I don't bother to clean up after making one meal when I'm about to make another mess for the next meal. I also make everything in 3-5 times the amount of any recipe, so that we have it for the week (or to freeze) and I make things that taste good after a few days. Soups, stews, grilled meats, etc. The only exception to that are scrambled eggs, quiche or frittatas which just don't taste good after 3 days.

That information is nice, but I'm sure that's not why you clicked this link. More on that in another post, hopefully before Christmas 2014.

So, onto pizza! Everyone knows that pizza can be the easiest way to incorporate vegetables into your kids diet by adding them to pizza. But when you're serving it to them on crust, it kind of takes away from the awesomeness, because it's really just vegetables on bread, with lots of cheese. Not a big deal for a party, but if you want to serve your babies a healthier (and easier) pizza, I have finally found the answer. Spaghetti squash! This is twenty times easier to make than making pizza crust from scratch, but definitely more work that purchasing a frozen pizza. It is cheaper than pre-made crust though, if that helps!

I know about the popular cauliflower pizza crust, and I've done that too, but it's very time consuming. It is extremely delicious, I just don't have that kind of time to make a pizza. I find this to be just as tasty and doesn't require much commitment or special equipment (like WTF is a tea towel?).

The only negative thing is that I can't quite figure out how to keep this crust from sticking to the aluminum foil after baking it. I haven't tried a pizza pan or parchment paper, and I've been asked a few times to post this, so please experiment and let me know what works best for you! Perhaps baking spray?

And for an added pinch of vegetables and flavor, I threw in a cup of chopped spinach mixed with 1.5 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese.

My boys annihilated this after I made it, and didn't question a thing. The "baby" (he's almost 16 months old) eats absolutely anything so that means nothing. The 3-year-old is a tougher critic.

If you're looking for an update, we are doing well. We went through a very difficult season in our family last year. Trying to keep our kids separated because they simply couldn't be left to play together safely, coupled with one stomach flu after another, and other very serious adult problems, 2013 was hard. Now that our boys are both toddlers, and it's summer - everyone is healthy and happy!

Spaghetti Squash Pizza (Crust) !!!

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Split the squash in half with a large knife and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Lay the halves in the oven, husk down and cook them for about 70 minutes. Let them cool completely and scoop the spaghetti into a bowl. Make sure the squash is pulled apart without clumps.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium-to-large mixing bowl, mix together the eggs, flax seed and salt until evenly combined. Add the spaghetti squash and fold it together with a wooden spoon until it's evenly mixed.

Line a baking pan with something other than aluminum foil - because that hasn't worked for me. I would try parchment paper next time. If you try the foil, spray it down with baking spray. Non stick doesn't do it. Press the squash into the pan until it's flat and evenly distributed. Bake it for about 45 minutes or until slightly browned. It shouldn't feel wet when you press down on it.

To turn this into a pizza, take it out of the oven and turn the broiler on low. Put as much sauce as you want on top of the pizza and add your cheese and toppings. Don't forget it you want to chop up some fresh spinach to mix in with the cheese! Broil the pizza on low for 4-5 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

I want to start this post by saying I don't in any way believe in "hiding" vegetables in food for kids who refuse to eat them. I am not going to give you advice as to how to get your kids to eat vegetables if that is the only way you can get them to do so, I am just starting this post by saying it's not my style to hide vegetables. With that said this is a great way to incorporate vegetables into a food most young kids will eat without a battle: MUFFINS!

I like to tell my boys what they're eating. So I say something like, "Would you like a zucchini and carrot muffin?". That way, they understand you can make delicious things with vegetables. We are lucky that both of our kids eat a pretty large quantity of vegetables without too much trouble, but we work hard at it.

These aren't typical sweet and fluffy muffins. If you want sweeter muffins you can always add more sugar, but I felt it defeated the purpose of a healthy muffin. I am not even sure if I make these again if I'm going to add any sugar, because they were a hit and barely sweet at all. They're strong in spice and have lots of other flavors to make up for lack of sweetness. They're dense because they're made with oat flour. You can choose to use all-purpose flour, but know it won't have the same nutritional value. Instead of buying oat flour, pulse regular oatmeal (not instant) in your food processor until it's a fine flour.
Want to hear something crazy?! I now have a 3-year-old and an 11.5-month-old. Valentine's Day we will officially have two toddlers. The baby has been mobile for so long now I feel like we've had a toddler for awhile. He's really into climbing and this is a challenge we didn't experience with our oldest. I keep "finding" him halfway up the stairs, in the toilet or trying to climb out of his crib. Cutest trouble maker ever!

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Start by browning butter. I do this by cutting it into cubes, then melting it over medium heat, slowly whisking it. It will start to foam, then bubble some more, then settle down, and finally you will see small brown bits forming on the bottom of the pan. Then, remove it from heat, and keep whisking it for another minute or so. Set it aside to cool down.

Combine the zucchini, carrots, milk, and eggs in to a large bowl. Stir with a large spoon until totally mixed.In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Whisk them until they're completely mixed. You can also sift the dry ingredients; I didn't bother to do that but it's not a bad idea. Remember, you can opt to use no sugar, or more if you prefer sweeter muffins.Add the browned butter to the wet ingredients, making sure to get all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir it completely, then add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir together with a wooden spoon until a thick batter has formed.Using two 12 muffin trays, spray the insides of the muffin holders with baking spray. I have done this with paper muffin holders and found it didn't work that well. Spraying works best. Fill each muffin tray to the top with muffin batter. These are very dense and won't rise very much, so don't be shy. Even a top off will be ok! Bake them 19-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean. Let them cool in the tins and then take them out when you can handle them.Use muffins to bribe small children.Oh wait, that's not part of the directions...

Ha, I actually have no idea how many calories it is because I am way too lazy extremely busy to figure that out. But it's a far healthier choice than traditional spaghetti carbonara.

The cream sauce is all over the internet; you've probably heard of the amazing cauliflower alfredo sauce, originally blogged here at Pinch of Yum.

I simplified her method because it was taking me too long (shocking).

Since I don't have any pictures of food, I will leave you with some cute ones of recent weeks.

Baby boo and me

Playing with the tornado at the science center

Heath's first snow

Baby and cat doing what appears to be yoga

Also, a question for my audience (do I have one?). Does anyone like unsweetened chocolate? I am a baker but have never really liked chocolate very much, except during pregnancy. Then I accidentally tried unsweetened chocolate and for goodness sakes, I can't stop eating it. Most people I speak to think this is gross. There has to be someone else. If not, help me because I'm horribly addicted now.

OH! One more thing. Get the hand blender (you know, the one I should be making commission on) for this recipe. I could never imagine taking the time to use a food processor for something this simple.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, put squash halves on a baking sheet and roast them for about 70 minutes. I like mine really soft because I like to scoop out the spaghetti as fast as I can. Once the halves are done cooking, set them aside to cool until you can handle them.

Place the cauliflower in a large pot or dutch oven, and cover it with water, then add the kosher salt. Cover and let it simmer until it's tender, about 10 minutes.

While it's cooking, melt the butter in a medium pan over medium heat and add the garlic. Lower the heat to medium low and cook it for 5 minutes until it's very soft, but not burned.

Once the cauliflower is tender, drain the water and put it back in the large pot.

Place the kale in the pan in which you cooked the garlic. Toss it over medium heat until it's slightly wilted.

In the large pot with the drained cauliflower, add the garlic, butter, a half cup of milk, and a tablespoon or two of EVOO. Using a hand blender or food processor, puree it until there are no chunks and the cauliflower is smooth.

If your sauce is still thick, add a bit more milk and EVOO, continuing to puree until you get your desired sauce texture. Fold in the parmesan cheese, chopped bacon, and kale. Then, scoop out the spaghetti using a fork into the sauce and gently fold it all together. To serve, sprinkle it with more cheese. And eat up! It's good for you :)

Sunday, November 24, 2013

In our house, we generally eat gluten free. We never committed to a gluten-free diet, as many have. However, eating gluten-free is the result of the kind of diet (or lifestyle, or whatever you want to call it) we have. Yes, I know I've posted some very sugary and sweet recipes, and also pizza dough, but truthfully, I rarely eat that stuff. Since I do eat it on occasion, I don't consider myself gluten-free.

For meals, we eat always have some sort of protein and tons vegetables. We snack on things like raw nuts, fresh fruit, and sliced peppers or carrots. For this reason, it irks me when people say that eating or cooking healthy takes a lot of skill. Although I do spend my Saturday nights doing food prep for our very busy weeks, most of the work involved is slicing or chopping. I don't really cook at all during the week. I cook everything on Saturday and Sunday, package it all up into containers for lunches, and generally spend more time cleaning up the mess than I did actually cooking.

I've been wanting to introduce the baby to some sort of "bready" food, as he is totally obsessed with cat food. He fights the cat for it, by crawling over to his food bowl, throwing the bowl at the cat's head, and then eating the pieces of food off of the floor. I was hoping to wait until he was closer to a year to introduce grains since toddlers are obsessed with crackers and similar-like crap. I guess it could be worse.

Yea, that's concrete. Right now my battle is sleeping past 5 am, so this will be fought later if necessary.

I came up with this recipe before I realized it was GF, as I said before, most of my cooking is just by the way we eat. It is truly delicious, and can easily be made to accommodate a baby as well as a kid. I made a few cookies for baby by simply removing the honey, cranberries and almonds (because he doesn't have teeth, and honey is dangerous for babies under 12 months due to botulism). Although I don't think he liked it as much as he enjoys cat food, he did eat it. And the toddler devoured them! I really think they taste amazing, so I hope you enjoy them too!

You can easily swap out eggs for some other kind of binder like applesauce, pumpkin, and I'd bet a nut butter would work too. We've been giving our baby eggs for awhile now, as he decided to try them (and peanut butter) at only 7-months old right from his brother's hands (hey, better than concrete, right?!). #Secondchild #NoOnePaysAttention #CanYouHashTagABlog?

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or slipmat.

Mix the quinoa with the melted coconut oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of the almond flour, honey and extracts. The batter will be wet but you should be able to press it into a patty without it totally falling apart. If it doesn't hold together, add more almond flour. Fold in the coconut, almonds and craisins. Take the batter in your hands and form a ball, then a patty, and put it on the parchment paper. They won't spread so don't worry about the spacing.

Bake for 20 minutes, then take them out and flip each cookie, and bake them for another 7-10. They should be slightly golden but not hard or tough.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Every year, I go to the pumpkin patch, pick out pumpkins, roast them and make homemade pumpkin puree, divide it up and freeze it to use throughout the year. Every single year it is something I say I will never do again. It is beyond tedious and annoying. Why do I continue to do it, do you wonder? Well, it turns out, homemade pumpkin puree is like worlds better than the canned stuff. The canned stuff you can't eat on a spoon, because it quite frankly tastes like metal. So every year, I do this, and then I say it sucks ass and it's not worth it. Except the puree lasts the entire year, and for sure through Thanksgiving and Christmas, and is so versatile for cooking and baking, that I end up being so glad I stuck it out another year.

So as annoying as this stuff is to make, it is so delicious that you could quite literally eat it plain the way you would any roasted vegetable. As my little Heath did today while we did this "together".

Method for roasting and pureeing the pumpkin: You will need an oven (obviously) preheated to 350 degrees, a sharp knife, baking pans lined with aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray and either a food processor or a hand blender/immersion blender. I highly recommend forking over $40 for one of these puppies if you spend any time at all cooking anything because it is a life changer. I love my food processor but making things like soups and purees can be super messy and annoying with it. The hand blender has only one part to clean up, and takes up little space in a cabinet.

Here's the arm workout and super annoying part! Using a large knife, lop off the top of the pumpkin around the stem, then cut it into fourths. Then cut the pumpkin up into large triangle pieces, and place them on the baking pans with the insides touching the foil. They can be on their sides so you can put more of them on the pan, it doesn't matter. Put them in the oven for about 45 minutes, then take them out and turn them onto another side and put them back in for another 15-20, or until they're really tender. Let them cool completely (about an hour) so you don't get burned!

Most bloggers will tell you that the skin of the pumpkin should easily be pulled off at this point. I'm calling their bluff and telling you the really tedious part is here, where you must scoop the pumpkin out of it's peel, and get pumpkin all over your kitchen and hands. Taste it though ... it's delicious, right? At this point you're likely doing what I do and saying you're not sure if it's worth the time and you'll probably never do this again. Anyways, scoop it out and put it in a big bowl.

After all the pumpkin in scooped out, take your hand blender and stick it in there to puree it. If you're using a food processor, you may have to add in some water to get it pureed evenly, and that may take away from a bit of the flavor. But it will still be OK... just even more tedious. When it's all finished it should be a nice lumpy looking puree.

Now for the tedious part (wait... did I already go over the annoying parts of this process? It must be that the entire thing makes you want to never do this again): Scooping out pumpkin to save and freeze. I like to do one-cup portions because most recipes call for about that much. Look how messy and tedious this is. I am totally not doing this ever again. EVER.

Except I know by Thanksgiving I'll be glad I spent a few hours on this because I can just pull out my awesome pumpkin and whip up some delightfully autumn-inspired food. Which leads me to my recipe! Healthy pumpkin pudding, tried and tested by my now 33-month-old son Colton. This stuff looks a bit gross, so I'm surprised he eats it, but he does and I feel good about it. The addition of honey or sweetener of your choice kind of subtracts from the healthiness factor, but I can't give him something called pudding and then not sweeten it a little bit.

By the way, if you're wondering who my kids look like and what happened, don't feel bad. Now that I'm not pregnant anymore I am once again getting the "Whose kids are those?! They are so cute! Are they twins?". Even though one is grunting like a gorilla and the other is yelling in full sentences, I get this question a lot.

2-4 tablespoons raw honey or brown sugar/agave nectar if you don't have honey

cloves, nutmeg and ginger to taste

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut (optional)

Whisk the pumpkin puree, almond milk and flavorings in a medium sized bowl. Add the chia seeds and mix until it starts to thicken. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for four hours or overnight. Enjoy for breakfast or as a healthy-ish snack! For a bit of a treat, whisk some heavy cream in a cold bowl and top the pudding with it!